Collaborators — Transactions
Overview
The Collaborators feature is the central employee directory in SARA. It manages the full lifecycle of a collaborator record — from registration and onboarding through contract tracking, document collection, and eventual offboarding. Collaborator records are referenced throughout SARA wherever a person assignment is required: timesheets, purchase orders, quotes, plant access, vacation requests, and more.
For the record lifecycle and document expiry automation, see: Workflow.
Note
This feature follows the standard record list layout. See: Common Features
Collaborators list
Overview
The main employee directory at /collaborators. Two tabs are available on this page: Collaborators and Expired documents.
What you will see
- Internal number — sequential employee number (e.g., 0285); used as the primary identifier on printed ID cards and throughout HR records.
- Acronym — a 4-letter code auto-generated from the collaborator's name (e.g., BRRL); used throughout SARA in compact references — dropdown selectors, log entries, and the Expired documents tab.
- Vcard token — a short alphanumeric hash (e.g.,
b14ec3c948); the collaborator's public digital profile is accessible at{site_url}/vcard/{token}.
The table supports custom columns including position, birthday, nationality, marital status, blood type, glasses, phone numbers, collaborator type, admission date, and internal company. Column selection is saved per user.
What you can do here
Welcome email — list-level button (requires edit). Opens a collaborator selector and sends an org-wide announcement email with the new collaborator's name, photo, position, and contact details. The email is sent to the company distribution list — not to the collaborator directly.
Id generation — row action (requires create id). Opens the ID card generator. Available for collaborators of any status.
Deactivate — row action (requires edit). Triggers a termination form before the status change is applied. See Workflow for the full deactivation sequence.
Expired documents tab
Overview
A cross-collaborator document expiry monitor (#documents). Aggregates all personal identity documents with expiration dates across all collaborators and displays them sorted ascending by date — it functions as a proactive expiry alert, showing upcoming and already-expired documents in one view.
What you will see
Each row shows expiration date, collaborator acronym, document type, document filename, document number, country of issuance, and a status badge:
- Green "Valid" — expires in more than 90 days.
- Orange "N days" — expires within 90 days; shows the exact day count.
- Red "Expired" — expiration date has passed.
This tab is read-only. There are no row actions.
Edit collaborator page
Overview
Full-page editor at /edit-collaborator/{id}. Unlike most SARA modules where editing happens in a modal, collaborators use a dedicated full-page form due to the volume of information managed. The page is split into a left panel (personal info, emergency contact, Kimai alias, contracts) and a right panel (address and contact, company info, sizes, scholar info, Kimai schedule settings).
A floating action dock at the bottom-left of the page expands via the "+" button to reveal: New school, New contract, Change company, and Save.
What you can do here
Change company — the only supported way to reassign a collaborator to a different internal company after the record is created. The internal company field in Company Info is read-only on the edit page. Submitting a change sends a notification email to users with the Change internal company mail permission. Requires edit.
New contract — attaches an employment contract file with an expiration date to the collaborator record. Multiple contracts are supported; they are displayed in read-only form in the Contracts panel.
New school — adds an academic credential (school name, major, degree) to the Scholar info panel. Degree options: PhD, Master's degree, Bachelor's degree, Professional Technician / TSU, High school, Unfinished. Multiple entries are supported.
Departments management — the "Departments" button in Company Info opens a modal to manage the collaborator's department and position assignments. A collaborator can hold multiple simultaneous assignments. Each assignment independently tracks the department, direct manager, and position, and can be removed individually.
Key fields with business meaning
- UID — 15-character identifier field; can store an NFC card serial number or other unique hardware identifier assigned to the collaborator.
- Company ID expiration — expiration date of the collaborator's company-issued physical ID document; tracked separately from uploaded personal documents.
- Admission date — the date the collaborator joined the company; used by vacation rules and printed on the ID card.
- Preferred name — controls which name SARA uses to display the collaborator in selectors and notifications (first name or middle name); each collaborator can also adjust this from their own profile.
- Primary phone same as WhatsApp — when unchecked, a separate WhatsApp number field appears.
- Glasses / Prescription — glasses flag conditionally reveals right and left diopter fields; collected for HR and safety records.
- Signature photo — used to sign system-generated documents such as purchase orders and quotes; only upload when requested by a supervisor.
Sub-features
ID card generator
Accessible via the "Id generation" row action (requires create id) or via "Go to download page" in the View modal. Generates a branded physical employee ID card in multiple image formats:
- Front — company logo, profile photo, full name, department, employee number, blood type, IMSS/NSS, mobile, email.
- Back — QR code, validity year, contact email, company addresses, website.
- Output files —
id_front_{id}.png,id_back_{id}.png,photo_square_{id}.png,thumbnail_circle_{id}.png,thumbnail_square_{id}.png.
The portrait used for the ID card is managed separately from the collaborator's profile photo and can be updated directly within the generator.
Kimai integration
When Kimai time-tracking is enabled, the edit page includes a Kimai panel (alias field) and a Kimai info panel (remote check-in permission, auto-finish tasks, fixed schedule toggle, schedule and lunch time slots). These settings control how the collaborator's time entries are processed in the Kimai integration.
Note
Kimai panels and the "Create kimai" row action are only visible when the Kimai integration is enabled on this SARA instance.
Document types settings
Overview
The catalog of personal identity document types that can be collected per collaborator. Managed in the global Settings modal (mosaic icon in the top-right navbar → Settings → Collaborator documents tab). This catalog drives which document slots appear in the collaborator's Documents modal and which document types feed into the Expired documents tab and automated expiry emails.
What you will see
Each document type shows its name and three flags: whether uploads require a reference text (e.g., an NSS number or RFC code), an expiration date, and a country of issuance. These flags directly determine which fields appear when HR uploads a document of that type for any collaborator.
Document types with Require expiration date = Yes are the only ones that generate entries in the Expired documents tab and trigger automated expiry notification emails.
What you can do here
New document type — creates a new collectible document slot available for all collaborators. The three collection flags are set at creation.
Edit — updates the name or flags of an existing type. Changes apply immediately to all future uploads; existing uploads are not affected.
Deactivate / Activate — deactivated types no longer appear as collectible slots in collaborator records. Existing uploads remain accessible.
Logs — replaces the list content with an in-place audit timeline of all catalog changes. Exit via "← Return". This is a tab-level audit log, not a per-record modal — it covers the entire catalog history in one view.
Note
Access to this tab requires the collaborator tab permission in the Settings modal.
Permissions
Permissions
Access and actions are permission-driven. See: Permissions